Tips on Interviewing

v1.0
Created: May 1, 2003
Updated: May 1, 2003

So while doing consultant interviews this past week, I was reminded how many people don't know how to do interviews. Many of the applicants didn't seem to prepare at all for the interview nor did they know how to act during the interview. Not that I'm blaming them... Most of them were freshmen and sophomores and thus haven't been forced to think about interviewing and how to do it right. I definitely sucked at interviews when I was a freshman. Not that I'm the best interviewee ever now, but I have learned a few things in the prevailing years.

This page is intended to collate all this disparate information into some sort of coherent mass. Hopefully it'll succeed at this. Please, if you have any questions, comments, suggestions, etc, mail me at kit@cs.brown.edu. Really, I like getting feedback, so mail me.

Overview

There are four main parts of an interview:

Getting the interview
Preparing for the interview
Doing the interview
After the interview

The fourth one isn't nearly as big as the first three, but I've included it for completeness. Finally, there is a conclusion.

Getting the Interview

The first step in the interview process is getting an interview. Back in the heyday of the dot-com explosion, this wasn't much of a problem. Today it's not so easy. It was bad for the '02 seniors, but it's seemingly worse for the '03 seniors, not to mention the legions of underclassmen searching for internships. Things aren't completely bleak though. You can still get a job, it just takes a lot more effort.

The first thing you need to do before even thinking about getting an interview is making sure you have a badass resume. Luckily, I've already written a page on how to write a resume. With awesome, resume in hand, you're ready to go interview-searching.

Online Resume Submission

Now you might think that going to a company's website and submitting a resume through some web form or e-mail address like "jobs@company.com" is a good way to get started. You couldn't be more wrong. I actually think that those resumes are piped directly to /dev/null. I've never heard of anyone who's _ever_ had any luck with those things. Just as an example, Google gets like 2,500 resumes per week through their online link. Google only has 500 employees. There's no way they can possible look at each of those resumes.

Networking

No, you need to go about it completely differently. One word: networking. Networking is really the only way to go. And I'm not talking about the Ethernet kind of networking either. I'm talking about people. Here's a news flash: you go to a great school with a great CS dept. We have so many graduates all over the place: Microsoft, Sun, Pixar, VMware, NetApp, Google, just to name a few. You may not know these people, but I bet juniors or seniors do. Befriend these people. Use them to get your resume into an alum's hands, who can then pass it off to a recruiter with a little note saying you're hot shit, or, at the very least, that they should talk to you. This will put you heads and tails above the online application people.

The key here is getting to know people within the dept. There are many ways to do this. Usually by the time you take 32, you start to meet everyone else. But you can get a head start on that by consulting, ta'ing, or doing research. Those are all great ways to get yourself involved with the dept.

Job Fairs

While networking is the best way to go about getting an interview, the job fairs aren't horrible either. Ok, they're pretty bad. But some people have had success with them. I've collected some tips that should help get the job done:

Plan your attack - You should know what companies will be there. This way you can make the correct number of copies of your resume. Or, if you're really swanky, you'll customize your resume for each company.
Ditch the small talk - Recruiters are busy at these career fairs. They don't have time to talk about the weather. It's best you go in and get the job done. That doesn't mean you need to be impolite. Just smile, introduce yourself, give a quick (max 1 or 2 min) speil, hand them your resume, and take off.
Focus your pitch - As I said, keep it quick and focused. Just say you're in CS, fulltime or internship, you're interesting in such and such group at this company, etc. That's pretty much all they care about. They probably have no clue about technical things, so don't waste their time rambling on about that stuff. As I said, be curt, but not rude or pushy.
Get the recruiter's e-mail address - Usually they'll hand you a business card or whatever. Be sure this has the recruiter's actual personal address and not some random automated reply address. You're going to want to be able to contact them personally.

Now what's probably going to happen is that time will pass and you won't hear anything from the recruiters. Recruiters nowadays are notoriously overworked (or maybe just lazy... who knows). Regardless, they never get back to you. So, you need to take the initiative and contact them. About a week or two after the job fair, send them a short note saying that you met them at Brown's career fair and are very interested in getting an interview with their company. Again, don't be rude or anything.

If another couple of weeks go by and they still haven't replied at all, you might want to send them another note. You don't want to send them too many e-mails, because this can seem pushy. But you shouldn't feel bad about sending them reminders. They very well may be trying to get you an interview but got sidetracked and forgot about you for whatever reason.

Anyway, hopefully after all this mailing you'll have an interview lined up. This takes us to the next section.

Preparing For the Interview

So now you've got an interview lined up. Whether it's a phone interview or a face-to-face interview, you still have to prepare for it. Preparing for an interview essentially means doing research. You should try to acquire as much info as you can about the interview. You want to know what questions they're going to ask (purely technical, brainteasers, other), what they're looking for in your answers, what technical areas they expect you to be familiar with, etc. There are a number of ways of going about getting this information:

The web - Always a great resource, the web definitely works for large companies. I've found all kinds of stuff about Microsoft interviews. Numerous sites list actual technical questions and brainteasers used in MS interviews. Plus you can find stories from people that have been through that companies interview process.
Other cs concentrators - Like networking above, this is probably your best resource. You're probably going to go through pretty much exactly what other people have gone through in previous years. So if you know someone that's interned for the company you want to intern for, ask them about the interview: what kinds of questions were asked, how they dealt with it, etc.

I can't stress how important preparation is. During the consultant interviews, it just shocked me how underprepared most people were. They had absolutely no idea what we wanted from them and thus gave a very bad impression of themselves. In a real job interview, there is no excuse for this. So once you know you have an interview, find out as much as you can about the company, what products they make, how they conduct interviews, what kinds of questions they ask, etc. Knowing this upfront will not only allow you to perform better, but it will also make you look better because it shows that you care enough about the job to put effort into preparation.

Doing the Interview

Day of the Interview

By now you should know everything there is to know about the company. You should also know everything on your resume. So now that the interview is upon you, what do you need to do?

Be well rested - This usually means getting a good nights sleep. Now personally when I'm flying out somewhere, I like to go out and see friends that I haven't seen in a while. Typically this means going out and drinking out and drinking the night before my interviews. Certainly not the best idea, but somehow I manage. I wouldn't recommend this course of action for you, however.
Look nice - Shower, shave, comb your hair, etc. Dress nicely. Work attire should have been something you found out about in your research. If you're not sure what you should were, it's always better to dress better. However, just about every tech company I've ever interviewed at I've just worn slacks and a nice sweater and been fine.
Smile, annunciate, be confident - These are the three big things to remember to do when interviewing. If you naturally talk silently, practice speaking up for your interviews. Annunciating works well with projecting confidence. You want to look like you're comfortable and ready to answer any of their questions. This gives interviewers a better impression of you. You shouldn't be cocky, but don't look timid either.

You may be thinking to yourself, yeah sure, this is all well and good... But it's obvious! That may be. But I can tell you there were a few consultant applicants who had good technical skills, but were simply too soft-spoken and thus we didn't hire them for exactly that reason. Now in a programming job it probably won't be that bad of a deal, but annunciating can only help you.

During the Interview

Here are a few things to think about while you're interviewing:

Be clear with your statements - Try to be an unambiguous as possible with whatever you say. I've had a few experiences where I've said something that the interviewer misinterpreted, and I eventually got burned for it. So if someone asks you about a specific technology, and you've read about what it is, but not much else, say, while I've heard of the technology, I'm not familiar with it. Don't say, "yeah, I've read a little bit on the subject." The latter sentence will signal them that you think you know something about it when in fact you probably don't. So just remember to take pause and be as clear as possible in your responses.
Don't lie! - I know at Microsoft interviewers will specifically ask you whether you've heard a question or brainteaser before when they know that someone else already asked you earlier in the day. They're looking to see how truthful you are. So save yourself the trouble and don't lie... It's not worth it.
Tell them what they want to hear - That being said, you can always bend the truth a bit. At one Microsoft interview, the interviewer asked me what a perfect job at MS would be for me. Part of my problem was not being very clear with my response... But another problem was that the job I was describing wasn't really the job I was applying for. I was applying for a programmer position. But I don't want to be programming all my life. At some point, I'd like to move into a more architect-like position. Anyway, I was talking about that and I guess the guy thought I wanted to do a Product Management position more than development. It just became a mess. He got confused. I got confused. No one knew what was going on. In the end, it was bad for me.
So what should I have said? Well, I probably should have talked about how I would like to work on hard problems, figure out a solution, then go home and have fun. Or something. Something sweet and picturesque. But that's what I mean, try to bend the truth to tell them what they want to hear. It can be a lot easier on you.

Answering Questions

Obviously this is one of the biggest parts of the interview. Confidence plays an exceptionally large role here. And don't think I'm talking solely about technical questions. Non-technical questions are just as important and require just as much preparation and thought as technical ones. Some basic rules to follow are:

Think about your answer - Don't just blurt out whatever first comes to your mind. Take about five seconds or so to gather your thoughts, then proceed. Don't wait too long though, because the interviewer may mistake this as a sign that you don't know what the answer is.
Don't make assumptions! - Try to make as few assumptions as possible. It's perfectly ok to ask for clarification about a specific point or issue. In fact, in many Microsoft interviews, they expect you to ask those kinds of clarification questions.
This is, of course, not an easy thing to do. It's tough to draw a line between good clarification questions vs trivial ones. But just try your best. And if there is a question in your mind about it, just go ahead and ask. It's better to get it out there, that let's the interviewer know you're thinking.
Think out loud - On that point, you should guide the interviewer through your mental process by thinking out loud. This will let them know what avenues toward an answer you are considering. Moreover, if they think you might be going down the wrong path, they can preemptively stop you and help you out. Thinking out loud shows them your thought process, and that's what they want to know about.
It's ok if you don't know the answer - It's perfectly ok if you don't know the answer right off the bat, or if you don't know it at all. Generally the idea isn't that you know the answer to a question, but how you demonstrate your thinking skills. Good thinking skills are much more valuable than rote memorization.

After the Interview

Generally, after the interview there's not much to do but wait. Most companies will get back to you in one or two weeks. Some people like to write thank you letters to their interviewers. I've never been a huge fan of this, but you can do it if it suits your fancy.

The thing to keep in mind with thank you letters is to keep them short. Like no more than three sentences or so. You just need to thank them for interviewing you. Say you look forward to speaking with them again soon or whatever. Just make it short and sweet.

Conclusion

Well that's about it for this document. Hopefully you've learned something. Interviewing is becoming more and more important as the number of available jobs drops. So it's worth your while to learn this stuff and practice it! Career Services has a lot of resources to help you out in this respect. They even do mock interviews. I've never done them with them or heard about it from anyone, so I'm not sure how good they're going to be for technical interviews. Hopefully next year the cs/dug will do some technical mock interviews.

Again, mail questions and comments to kit@cs.brown.edu.

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